Compare software

Characters vs Copy Paste Character: catalog facts
Characters	Copy Paste Character
Best for: Finding and copying special characters and emoji on a GNOME desktop	Best for: People who need symbols that are difficult to type from a keyboard
Free Free and open source under the GPL-2.0-or-later and BSD-3-Clause licences.	Free The character picker is available online for free.
Linux	Web
Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols All 3 strengths for Characters Keyword search across Unicode characters Browse by category including emoji and math symbols Actively maintained GNOME app	Searches and browses characters by category Copies characters or their HTML codes
Linux only Basic feature set aimed at lookup and copy	Some characters may not be available in every typeface.
Downloadable app	Web application
Open source	Not open source
License: GPL-2.0-or-later AND BSD-3-Clause	License not stated
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Offline features available	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Characters apps.gnome.org/Characters Catalog checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Copy Paste Character copypastecharacter.com Catalog checked October 8, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.